A sparkling clean home with that extra deep clean shine sells faster
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A buyer wants a feel good experience when they walk into a home and choose it as their own. The less maintenance there is to do, the more likely you are to get top dollar.
Here are a few tips for Deep Cleaning your home and for pet odors
A sparkling clean smelling home with that extra deep clean shine sells faster and give the impression the home is well maintained and move in ready
Here are a few tips you may not think about.
- Clean the top of refrigerator
- Clean the top of kitchen and bath cabinets between cabinet and ceiling
- Wipe down the inside/outside/grooves& shelving of all kitchens, bath & other cabinets
- Oil cabinets several times if wood and it’s been a while since oiling
- Clean all lights switches and plugs in all rooms
- Clean all windowsill tracts and corners attention to detail in corners, a dental pick works for those hard to get corners
- Clean window frames and grooves of the windows with detail (toothbrush)
- Wash inside of all windows
- Wipe down all doors front, back, and sides
- Oil fronts and backs of doors if it’s been a while
- Wipe down all door casings top bottom sides
- Wipe down all baseboard moldings
- Deep clean oven and scrub the oven racks
- Deep clean refrigerator and freezer and behind drawers
- Deep clean microwave and racks
- Deep clean dishwasher and racks
- Clean under refrigerator
- Clean under stove
- Clean under water and dryer
- Clean any soap scum on the shower glass and shower wall with attention to corners
- Pull out all register Vents and clean and wipe down
- Clean tops and bottoms of all ceiling fan blades
- Clean all light fixtures, kitchen, baths, laundry room halls
- Clean in the wells of the skylights
- Clean carpets by a professional who uses a high heat extraction
- Clean Garage lights, switches, plugs
- Vacuum all cobwebs on ceiling and corners of garage
- Clean out outbuilding and any cobwebs
- Clean front, door light fixtures, critters, and cobwebs, repeat to all other entrances, side and back doors
- Pressure wash all cement, walkways. Patio, driveway as needed
- Clean exterior windows
- Clean gutters inside and out
Pet odors can kill a sale
We love out pets and sometimes and they provide a great deal of compassion and comfort, and we can become immune to their smells in our home. One of the best pieces of advice you can take from here is that pet odors will kill a home sale for many people that may otherwise like your home. This is driven by the fear that they will not be able to get rid of the pet smells once they own your home. This is something you should be thinking about when getting your home ready for sale.
- Ventilation – The first thing you need to do is open the windows and doors and let some air in. It can be hard in cooler months to allow ventilation and remain comfortable, which can lead to an accumulation of smells in the house. Whether it is hot or cold, let some air in and let some of those bad odor’s flow right out. This is only a starting point, but important, nonetheless.
- Wash all fabrics – It is sometimes surprising just how many places odors can accumulate. When you really want to clear out the smell it is worthwhile to wash everything that is washable. This means sheets, blankets, pet bedding and even the draperies. If it is washable, you might as well wash it. You will be surprised at just how much odor this can remove from your home. Of course, follow the fabric care directions on all your items. Some may need to be laundered or steam cleaned to avoid damaging the material.
- Scrub your floors – Any surface that can be scrubbed should be. You don’t necessarily have to use a harsh abrasive, but you do want to use some sort of cleaner appropriate to the surface to remove all dirt and dander and possible odors. There are pet odor removers that you can purchase for certain materials. However, you can also just make up a light bleach solution – 1:9 or so – to clean off tougher surfaces like walls and concrete. Use your discretion, just make sure that you clean off all the surfaces in your home – including windowsills, molding, floors and counters.
- Pet Urine – Consider replacing carpets or Clean the carpets by a professional who uses a high heat extraction process, the high heat will kill bacteria. They may use an enzyme treatment for pet odors
- Use an ozone machine – Over the years one of the things I have had great luck with when it comes to removing odors is an ozone machine. Whether it was cigarette smoke or pet odors an ozone machine carefully placed in a home for a few days has done wonders for taking quite a bit of the smell out. You can see how ozone removes odors by destroying the spores and bacteria that cause these tough to remove smells.
- Remove the offenders – This is one of the harder parts of selling a home when you have pets. The fact is, as long as those pets are given free reign of the house you are going to have odor problems. Once you decide that selling the house is important, you will probably need to restrict the movement of your pets until the house is sold. Some people even keep their pets at a friend’s or family member’s home to make things easier.
- Paint Walls – We don’t realize this but odors can be deeply set into walls and floors. This is especially true if pets have directly soiled the area. A fresh coat of paint or a wood stain. An Odor absorbing paint works by both covering and absorbing the odor, creating a fresher air quality. Sherwin-Williams odor absorbing paint. It contains anti-microbial agents which inhibit the growth of mold and mildew as well as related bacterial odors.
